Continuously Reinforced Concrete Road Bases

In the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat is the authority in charge among others of the construction of highways. The department Limburg of Rijkswaterstaat has chosen a continuously reinforced concrete roadbase for the construction of the 12 km long new highway section between the cities of Venray and Boxmeer. This choice was based on the expectation that furure maintenance works would be minimal, thus a higher initial investment being acceptable. The specification of the total construction from bottom to top is as follows: 1.02 m sand for bedding, 0.15 m cement bound subbase, 0.06 m bituminous intermediate layer, 0.22 m pavement quality concrete slab and 0.05 m porous asphalt surfacing. The bituminous intermediate layer should prevent the cement bound subbase from erosion. The quality of the concrete is R45 chararteristic, which means that 95% of the test results have to be 45 N/mm 2 or higher. The reinforcement has been placed at mid-slab depth and consists of grade 500 deformed steel bars. The diameter of the longitudinal bars is 16 mm and 0.67% of the crosssectional area of the slab, the diameter of the transverse bars is 12 mm at 700mm centres and at 60 1 to the longitudinal bars.